Borrman H, Solheim T, Magnusson B, Kvaal S I, Stene-Johansen W
Faculty of Odontology, Göteborg University, Sweden.
Int J Legal Med. 1995;107(4):183-6. doi: 10.1007/BF01428402.
Inter-observer variations in the registration of dental age-related characteristics have not previously been studied. Examination and registration were made by 6 dentists with varying experience in age estimation. A total of 13 age-related dental characteristics in 30 teeth extracted from adults were assessed macroscopically, by stereomicroscope and from radiographs. The measurements were analysed in a microcomputer, using the SPSS/PC+ statistical package. The results showed that, except for the score on surface roughness, significant differences were found between some of the observers for all types of measurements, when a paired t-test analysis was made. The correlation coefficients between the observers varied and were rather weak for the surface roughness score. The study revealed systematic differences among the observers as well as differences in interpreting the definitions of the scores for the different parameters. Thus age estimation using statistical methods is seen to be dependent upon the experience of the individual observer and interpretation. Care should therefore be taken not to rely too much upon the results of an odontological age estimation. The possible implications of these results for forensic work are also discussed.
此前尚未对与牙齿年龄相关特征记录中的观察者间差异进行研究。由6名在年龄估计方面经验各异的牙医进行检查和记录。对从成年人拔除的30颗牙齿中的总共13项与年龄相关的牙齿特征进行了宏观、立体显微镜和X线片评估。使用SPSS/PC+统计软件包在微型计算机上对测量结果进行分析。结果显示，除表面粗糙度评分外，当进行配对t检验分析时，所有类型测量中部分观察者之间均存在显著差异。观察者之间的相关系数各不相同，表面粗糙度评分的相关系数较弱。该研究揭示了观察者之间的系统性差异以及在解释不同参数评分定义方面的差异。因此，使用统计方法进行年龄估计似乎取决于个体观察者的经验和解释。所以应注意不要过于依赖牙科学年龄估计的结果。还讨论了这些结果对法医工作可能产生的影响。
